New Twitch Rankings: Top Games by Esports and Total Viewing Hours

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Today, market intelligence firm Newzoo is launching new monthly rankings for the Most Watched Games on Twitch by Esports and Total Hours. Esports hours consist of content from professionally organized esports competitions or events, and does not include individual (pro-player) streams nor hours spent watching broadcasts of other consumers. All together, these make up the total Twitch viewing hours. In answer to the ever increasing interest in video gaming content and investments of brands into esports, these rankings highlight the most popular games on the world’s biggest online game streaming platform. According to a just-released study from Twitch, exposure on the platform can have a direct positive impact on player retention and game sales.

Trending: The Impact of Major Tournaments on Viewership

League of Legends, CS:GO, and Dota 2 consistently rack up the most esports hours watched. Above, we show their monthly performance since August 2015, highlighting the major events that contributed to a viewership spike. The stand-out performance comes from League of Legends in October, when its World Championship generated almost 60 million hours of viewership. Over the past 11 months, viewers spent almost 264 million hours watching LoL esports content on Twitch, the highest of any title. Peak viewership for CS:GO came last August during ESL One in Cologne, where more than 40 million hours were spent watching the title. We expect to see a similar effect in next month’s ranking as ESL One Cologne kicks off on July 5th. MLG Major Columbus, which was spread between March and April, also massively boosted viewership for the game. The Manilla Major, ESL One Frankfurt, and qualifiers for The International 2016 ensured that June was Dota 2’s best month.

Capcom’s Street Fighter Enters at #7

Dota 2 was the top title for esports in June. This is following an equally successful May for the game, where 10 million hours were spent viewing the Epicenter tournament alone. Meanwhile, the start of League of Legends’ summer split seasons gained the title a spot at the cost of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). The lack of major tournaments for CS:GO meant that the time spent on esports content saw only a slight increase on May. Street Fighter V is #7 in June, proving Capcom’s decision to make this version of Street Fighter a true esports title is paying off. The extremely popular hero shooter Overwatch from Blizzard almost entered the ranking, standing at #11. It takes spot five in the overall viewership ranking below. According to our PC Game Ranking, it’s the fourth most played PC title among core gamers in the US and Europe. Overwatch generated decent viewership with some of its first events, but its esports scene is still lagging behind its player base with esports claiming just 1% of all hours watched.

Horror Game Dead by Daylight Debuts at #6

We will also provide monthly insights into the Top 20 watched titles overall. This excludes content such as gaming talk shows, music and creative channels, or games such as poker.

In June, League of Legends remained the most watched game on Twitch. Dota 2 managed to gain a position, which is unsurprising considering its esports content performed so strongly in June, accounting for 58% of total hours watched. The drop in interest after the first month of Hearthstone’s latest expansion meant that its viewership decreased by almost 15 million hours. The newly released Dead by Daylight came in at #6 for the first time. The game belongs to the increasingly popular horror genre. Its rise in general viewership came at the cost of H1Z1, another horror game. NBA 2K16 also debuted in the top 20 at #14. This comes as no surprise, as the game consistently has performed well on Twitch this year and has seen a steady rise in viewership over the past six months. Heroes of the Storm benefited from the Summer Championships America and Dreamhack Summer tournaments, reentering the top 20 at #17 after a one-month absence. FIFA 16 dropped seven places to #18, possibly due to soccer fans watching the European Cup or Copa America instead.

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